I see you are a Paul Stanley fan. I love Kiss!! Met Paul several times and he was always a great guy. My best guesstimate is since I was 17 I have seen Kiss probably about 50 times. I'm 54 now. My dream is to go on a Kiss cruise before they call it quits after the 2019 3 year world wide tour.

I pre-ordered the book and got it on release. A quick read, but very informative. I think this will be great for those new investors who want to read a book before investing, but don't want to invest the time in a 600 page monster.

As I mentioned in my Amazon review, this book is a perfect length to give as a gift to people who just need to get to the nitty gritty of investing. My almost retired friends and my young adult children might feel overwhelmed with the more extensive Bogleheads Guide to Investing. People I talk to seem to be petrified of tackling their investment decisions. I feel like this book is simple to understand, gives a compelling argument for why the three-fund portfolio works, and tells you how to implement it. Just lent it to a recently retired friend. Sorry, should have made him buy it!

Taylor Larimore — nonagenarian, World War II vet, and co-author of the Bogleheads’ Guide books — recently released a new book: The Bogleheads’ Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio.

The “three-fund portfolio” (subject of a long-running discussion thread on the Bogleheads forum) is made up of three index funds: a total US stock market index fund, a total international stock index fund, and a total bond market index fund. With just three holdings, it manages to be far simpler than most people’s portfolios, while also being extremely diversified (including thousands of stocks from around the world, as well as thousands of bonds).

Larimore’s new book is very brief — in the spirit of Bill Bernstein’s If You Can. For those who are already well versed in the Bogleheads literature (e.g., having already read the original Bogleheads Guide to Investing, and other books by Bernstein, Roth, Ferri, etc.) the book will be unlikely to provide new information, but it will likely be an enjoyable read nonetheless, as it was for me. (I always enjoy reading about Taylor’s lessons accumulated via many years of experience.)

I think where the book will really shine is as a gift for new investors. Because of the book’s brevity (easy to read in an afternoon), it is more likely to actually be read than the typical book about investing. And because of the book’s singular focus, it will be easy for new investors to internalize the message.

Like so many others here I'm extremely grateful for Taylor's enormous contributions to both this board and to previous Bogleheads books. I bought this new offering and while I concur that it's an ideal gift for new investors I found myself feeling like my purchase was basically just a donation to a very worthy charity - which of course isn't a bad thing!

I expected "brief" after reading the comments here, but still expected some discussion of the logic behind the funds chosen and alternative choices. There are, for example, strong arguments to be made for Vanguard Intermediate Treasury instead of Total Bond, and as for the always-contentious topic of what percentage to allocate to international one might have thought that Vanguard's own very well-researched recommendation (as implemented in their funds) of up to 40% would have been at least worthy of mention.

These are of course minor quibbles and I have no doubt that this book will be of tremendous benefit to innumerable readers.

I was pleased to read a nice review from "The Wall Street Physician" with this Conclusion:

This book is perfect for the busy professional or novice investor who wants to get started with do-it-yourself investing using the three-fund portfolio. Experienced investors or regular Bogleheads readers who are already well-versed in the benefits of index fund investing and the simplicity of the three-fund portfolio will likely already be familiar with most of the content in this book. However, it may convince even experienced investors to simplify their more complicated index-fund portfolio to a three-fund portfolio.

Zach, editor of "Four Pillar Freedom," sent me a copy of his latest newsletter in which he did a review of The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio. I appreciate the review. This is his ending:

I highly recommend checking out the book yourself. It’s only about 60 pages and packed with nuggets of wisdom.

Thank you, Zach, for your professional review. Every purchase results in a contribution to The Bogle Center For Financial Literacy.

Zach, editor of "Four Pillar Freedom," sent me a copy of his latest newsletter in which he did a review of The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio. I appreciate the review. This is his ending:

I highly recommend checking out the book yourself. It’s only about 60 pages and packed with nuggets of wisdom.

Thank you, Zach, for your professional review. Every purchase results in a contribution to The Bogle Center For Financial Literacy.

Best wishes.

Taylor

Zach states 60 pages but the NYT's article and Amazon have the book as 112 pages. 52 pages of reference material or is Zach wrong or ?
In any case - will order a copy!

It really is a shame that Taylor Larimore chooses to use the word “Boglehead” in the title of his compelling new book: “The Bogleheads’ Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio” (Wiley, $24.95.)

There is nothing really wrong with the word. It refers to people who follow the investment principles of John C. Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, the huge mutual fund company known for offering index funds.

Mr. Bogle passionately believes in paying the absolute minimum when buying and selling stocks, bonds and exchange-traded funds, investing for the long haul — to minimize both trading costs and capital gains — and diversifying your holdings.

So what’s my problem with the word Boglehead? The word, coupled with Mr. Bogle’s introduction to the book and the fact that three funds Mr. Larimore uses as his primary example come from Vanguard, can lead people to think they can only create a three-fund portfolio using Vanguard funds.

And you could, for example, execute his three-fund plan using Fidelity’s Total Market Index Fund, Global ex U.S. Fund and U.S. Bond Index Fund. And as Mr. Larimore writes, you should consider the offerings of “any other company offering total market index funds with low expense ratios.”

It’s accessible and his tone is friendly. And if it prompts people to create a diversified portfolio that keeps fees and taxes to a minimum and gets them to invest for the long haul, he will have performed a great service.

Not only is there a half page review of "The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio," but the review also cites Allan Roth's "How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street."

There's also a discussion about how to allocate the bonds. The reviewer says that the 3-fund portfolio includes no corporate bonds or government bonds from countries outside the United States, and asks whether, if you're going to have international stocks, shouldn't you also have foreign bonds. (Vanguard's website says that the Total Bond Fund is mostly government, but has some corporate and foreign bonds.) Then, in the same section, Carla Fried's article "How Owning Qualify Corporate Bonds Got Riskier," https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/busi ... bonds.html, quotes Jared Kizer of Buckingham Strategic Wealth (Larry Swedroe's firm) as saying that as a result of downgrades, corporate bonds don't outperform government bonds by a larger margin, and that "the high-grade corporate bond market doesn't seem to be a necessary part of a diversified portfolio."

The Bogleheads should leave reviews after reading the book. Currently there is only one review on Amazon, and it was not a great rating because the reviewer felt the book was too short. That is the beauty of the Three-Fund Portfolio- its simplicity!

I agree, the book was very, very short. And even repetitive at that!

The concepts are short and simple. But repeating the point enough times and adding a bunch of quotes from people attesting to the three-fund philosophy in order to barely fluff it out to book length seems like a waste. There is absolutely nothing in the book that you couldn't read here for free.

If you just want to own a book with Bogleheads in the title for some reason, maybe it makes sense.
For me, I'm glad I borrowed the ebook from the library and didn't have to pay for it.

Sorry.

(And be careful when leaving reviews on Amazon. Fakespot.com give the current reviews a grade of F: "Tread lightly, this product may contain a major number of unreliable or low quality reviews!" Gushing reviews using copied/pasted text can do that.)

I could have done without the constant praise from his fellow Bogleheads — who are known only by their initials in the book — for the three-fund idea. It’s a good idea. Fine. No need to keep saying so.

I think he is dead wrong. A big challenge with the three-fund portfolio is that it seems too simple to be a good approach. "Simple but sophisticated" is a tough idea for people to wrap their minds around. Quoting others helps reassure readers that just three total market funds can work in a deeply efficient way.

"It is remarkable how much long term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent." -- Charlie Munger

I could have done without the constant praise from his fellow Bogleheads — who are known only by their initials in the book — for the three-fund idea. It’s a good idea. Fine. No need to keep saying so.

I think he is dead wrong. A big challenge with the three-fund portfolio is that it seems too simple to be a good approach. "Simple but sophisticated" is a tough idea for people to wrap their minds around. Quoting others helps reassure readers that just three total market funds can work in a deeply efficient way.

Did you read the book? Far too many paragraphs wasted with "Bogleheads speak out" quotes. And in addition, an Appendix with quotes from "experts". It got silly after a while. There's no way that kind of repetition provided any sort of reassurance.

I think the "three fund" concept might have merit. But the book, not so much. Having read other Boglehead books, this one was rather disappointing.

OP here
I did not read the book yet wonder how many pages (I think the book is something like 140pp) you can fill even with charts and extensive explanations and variations to demo the effectiveness of the three fund portfolio?
More than ten years ago Taylor and other BHs guided us as we cleaned up the mess that two "friends" at name financial institutions got us into as they feathered their nests. Tweaked it a bit over the years and today we are really at a five fund portfolio.
Guessing bogleheads are not the target for this book and some fluff may help the newbies get involved...

I could have done without the constant praise from his fellow Bogleheads — who are known only by their initials in the book — for the three-fund idea. It’s a good idea. Fine. No need to keep saying so.

I think he is dead wrong. A big challenge with the three-fund portfolio is that it seems too simple to be a good approach. "Simple but sophisticated" is a tough idea for people to wrap their minds around. Quoting others helps reassure readers that just three total market funds can work in a deeply efficient way.

Did you read the book? Far too many paragraphs wasted with "Bogleheads speak out" quotes. And in addition, an Appendix with quotes from "experts". It got silly after a while. There's no way that kind of repetition provided any sort of reassurance.

I think the "three fund" concept might have merit. But the book, not so much. Having read other Boglehead books, this one was rather disappointing.

....

Taylor's book does exactly what it sets out to do--introduce new investors to an investing strategy that they can follow. The strategy is backed up with strong evidence. The book is clear, easy to read and comprehend.

Paul

When times are good, investors tend to forget about risk and focus on opportunity. When times are bad, investors tend to forget about opportunity and focus on risk.

I did not read the book yet wonder how many pages (I think the book is something like 140pp) you can fill even with charts and extensive explanations and variations to demo the effectiveness of the three fund portfolio?

The book has 112 pages.

Chapter 1: The Investment Industry starts on page 1
As happens in each chapter, it includes more than a half page of "Bogleheads Speak Out" quotes. It also includes a full page dedicated to sort of an ad for Bernstein's "What if" pamphlet.
Chapter 2: John C. Bogle - The Investor's Best Friend starts on page 5
Chapter 3: John Bogle Introduces Three Total Market Index Funds starts on page 9
Chapter 4: Twenty Benefits of Total Market Index Funds starts on page 13
Chapter 5: Getting Started starts on page 49
Chapter 6: Stay The Course starts on page 59
Appendix I: What Experts Say starts on page 63
Appendix II: Meet the Bogleheads starts on page 69
Glossary of Financial Terms starts on page 75
the Index starts on page 79

That's it. There's really very little there about the 3-Fund Portfolio. Chapter 4 and 5 are pretty much the meat of the book. 46 pages including the fluff. Disappointing.

Guessing bogleheads are not the target for this book and some fluff may help the newbies get involved...

Certainly there's nothing here that Bogleheads don't already know. Anything in the book can already be found at Bogleheads.org. Newbies would be far better served to read here at this forum than read the book.

I wanted to like it. I wanted to learn something by reading it. Oh well.

Isn't it possible to love and appreciate Taylor, but not like the book?

Last edited by JoeRetire on Mon Jul 16, 2018 5:13 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I did not read the book yet wonder how many pages (I think the book is something like 140pp) you can fill even with charts and extensive explanations and variations to demo the effectiveness of the three fund portfolio?

How can you call the NY Times review "dead wrong" when you haven't even read the book yet?

The book has 112 pages.

Chapter 1: The Investment Industry starts on page 1
As happens in each chapter, it includes more than a half page of "Bogleheads Speak Out" quotes. It also includes a full page dedicated to sort of an ad for Bernstein's "What if" pamphlet.
Chapter 2: John C. Bogle - The Investor's Best Friend starts on page 5
Chapter 3: John Bogle Introduces Three Total Market Index Funds starts on page 9
Chapter 4: Twenty Benefits of Total Market Index Funds starts on page 13
Chapter 5: Getting Started starts on page 49
Chapter 6: Stay The Course starts on page 59
Appendix I: What Experts Say starts on page 63
Appendix II: Meet the Bogleheads starts on page 69
Glossary of Financial Terms starts on page 75
the Index starts on page 79

That's it. There's really very little there about the 3-Fund Portfolio. Chapter 4 and 5 are pretty much the meat of the book. 46 pages including the fluff. Disappointing.

Guessing bogleheads are not the target for this book and some fluff may help the newbies get involved...

Certainly there's nothing here that Bogleheads don't already know. Anything in the book can already be found at Bogleheads.org. Newbies would be far better served to read here at this forum than read the book.

I wanted to like it. I wanted to learn something by reading it. Oh well.

Isn't it possible to love and appreciate Taylor, but not like the book?

You got the wrong guy, "dead wrong" was TomP10. I said "Guessing bogleheads are not the target for this book and some fluff may help the newbies get involved..." not a glowing comment but not "dead wrong"
either, I accept your apology, no offense taken!

You got the wrong guy, "dead wrong" was TomP10. I said "Guessing bogleheads are not the target for this book and some fluff may help the newbies get involved..." not a glowing comment but not "dead wrong"
either, I accept your apology, no offense taken!

Yup, sorry. I "merged" the comments incorrectly. I do apologize.
I went back and edited my response.

Taylor's book does exactly what it sets out to do--introduce new investors to an investing strategy that they can follow. The strategy is backed up with strong evidence. The book is clear, easy to read and comprehend.

Paul

I agree.

If I could go back in time 20 years and give myself two books about investing this would be one of them. The other: Jack Bogle's Little Book of Common Sense Investing.

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